Cobwebs
by Imitation of Life
Summary: What's your favorite part of nighttime, Malfoy?" "Fireflies." Harry and Draco serve a detention down by the river. Slight slash. Please review!


And here's your lesson on how NOT to pass a midterm: I am in the library RIGHT NOW, under the pretense of studying for the midterms that take place on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. I am not studying, however; I am writing FANFICTION! (Yeah, Caroline, THAT'S the way to pass the math final. . .) I've basically paid off the librarian to let me post this on the library's "public server" (apparently it's like illegal or something). I hope you enjoy this; have a nice day!  
  
Cobwebs  
  
"What's your favorite part of nighttime, Malfoy?" Harry asked tentatively. He was serving an all-night detention for Filch outside the Forbidden Forest with Malfoy after being caught in the restricted section of the library. They'd been out there for about three hours without saying a word to each other. It was better, Harry supposed, than fighting like they normally did, but still. . . a civil word here and there would be nice.  
  
Malfoy must have felt the same, because he replied, "Fireflies."  
  
"Really?"  
  
"Mm-hmm. I like that they're elusive. You're always seeing them, but you're never catching them."  
  
Harry nodded. Typical Malfoy.  
  
"What about you, Potter?"  
  
Not so typical Malfoy.  
  
Harry shrugged, startled at being asked his opinion by a Malfoy. "I like crickets," he finally said, annoyed at how lame his voice sounded. "They're pretty."  
  
Malfoy shook his head.  
  
~~  
  
"Did you ever have a favorite toy, Malfoy?" Harry asked an hour later.  
  
"A favorite TOY?" Malfoy repeated, shocked by Potter's presumptuous postulation that he, Draco Malfoy, had EVER played with toys.  
  
"Yes. A favorite toy." Harry grinned. "And I know you had one, so don't give me that face."  
  
Deciding that he didn't have anything to lose anyway, Draco sniffed. "Well. If you must know, I had- and still have- a Queen Buzzy Bee that I was quite fond of."  
  
"A Queen- a what?"  
  
"A Queen Buzzy Bee. It's a bumblebee-on-wheels that eerily resembles a duck and you pull it around on the attached string and the wings flap and it makes a buzzing sound. It wears a crown."  
  
Harry snorted. "A Queen Buzzy Bee. Nice."  
  
"Potter, you shut the hell up."  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
~~  
  
"Potter, do you have ANY fears?" Malfoy asked in disgust, watching Harry pull a salamander by the tail from a murky stream.  
  
"Nope. I'm totally fearless." Harry put the salamander, a special request from Professor Snape for a potion he was making, in the bucket and slammed the lid on so it couldn't escape.  
  
"I'm serious, Potter," Malfoy said after a few minutes as they walked down the stream. "What's your biggest fear?"  
  
"My biggest fear. . . my biggest fear is hurting someone and not being able to control it."  
  
"What a GRYFFINDOR."  
  
Harry frowned. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I say the one about hurting someone? I mean that my biggest fear is someone finding out that I've had to turn my basement into a morgue thanks to all the people I've killed for Voldemort. There, Malfoy, are you happy now?"  
  
"You know what, Potter? I don't think you know what a Slytherin is! We aren't ALL terrible people, you know! I don't kill for Voldemort!"  
  
"You're sixteen!"  
  
"That's old enough!" Draco cried, eyes blazing. "That son of a bitch Pettigrew killed your parents, and he was in Gryffindor! You know that? Huh? Not Slytherin! Gryffindor! There isn't a Gryffindor IMMUNITY that says you're the fucking GOLDEN CHILD and I'm the lowlife piece of crap that can't do anything right!"  
  
Harry put his head down.  
  
"Maybe next time you should think before you speak, huh Potter?"  
  
~~  
  
"I'm sorry," Harry murmured fifteen minutes later. "I shouldn't have said what I said. I don't think you'd kill for Voldemort."  
  
"I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of spitting on his robes."  
  
Harry laughed. "I know."  
  
They worked in silence clearing tree roots for Hagrid's next field trip for a few minutes longer.  
  
"May I call you Draco?" Harry asked softly. "It's such a prettier name than Malfoy. . ."  
  
"Um, thanks," Draco replied uncertainly. Then he laughed. "And I guess you've earned the right to call me Draco, if you want."  
  
"And you'll call me Harry?"  
  
"Snowball's chance in hell."  
  
Harry's face fell.  
  
"But you never know. . . maybe by the end of the night. . ."  
  
~~  
  
"I hate clearing roots," Draco snarled. "Hate it hate it hate it hate it more than I could say. Hate it hate it hate it. . . damn spiderwebs. . ."  
  
"No!" Harry cried, jumping for him and knocking him down.  
  
"Potter, I know you like me, but try not to sit on me in a strange forest. . ."  
  
Harry blushed. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "But. . . don't destroy the spiderweb."  
  
"It's just a cobweb!"  
  
Harry's jaw dropped. "Don't you know the difference between a cobweb and a spiderweb?" he asked softly.  
  
Draco's face looked blank.  
  
"Look at the lines." Harry took one of Draco's hands and traced the lines on the palm. "See these lines?" Draco nodded uncertainly. "The webs have lines too. Look."  
  
It was late enough at night so the dew had set in, and there were tiny bits of what seemed to be glass all over the web. "That's. . . pretty," Draco murmured. "I guess I never stopped to look at one before. . ."  
  
"A cobweb is just a pile of gray stuff in a corner," Harry continued. "Like the stuff by your windowsill."  
  
"What's a cob?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Well, a spider makes a spider, so what makes a cobweb? What's a cob?"  
  
Harry laughed. "I don't know."  
  
"Harry, you ignoramus. . ."  
  
"Well, I-" Harry stopped abruptly, noticing something.  
  
"What?"  
  
Harry looked up slowly. "You called me Harry."  
  
Draco blushed. "Did I?"  
  
"You did."  
  
Draco swallowed hard. "The next item on the list is eight lily pads."  
  
~~  
  
"I guess this is where we'd go to find lily pads," Draco announced, overlooking the river. Harry yawned.  
  
"Oh, you aren't tired already, are you?"  
  
"Draco, it's like two in the morning. . ."  
  
"Wimp."  
  
"I've been up all day. . ."  
  
"WIMP." Draco smiled. "We have to go into the river to get these," he said softly. "I don't think it's more than waist deep, but it's bound to be cold. . . can you swim, Potter?"  
  
Harry nodded.  
  
"Okay, we jump on the count of three. One. . . two . . . three!"  
  
Harry jumped, and the shock of the water when it hit him was almost too much for him to take. It was icy, freezing, and black. Draco had been right, though. It was only waist deep. He looked around to see the blonde shivering and hugging himself.  
  
"Ready?" Harry asked, pointing at the lily pads about twenty feet away. Draco nodded and they waded for them.  
  
"AH! SHIT!"  
  
As it turned out, the water was NOT waist deep the whole width of the river. About ten feet before the lily pads, both boys sunk to over their heads.  
  
The seconds Draco surfaced, he looked around wildly to find Harry until he spotted a little black ball of hair coughing and sputtering. "You okay, Harry?" he asked, swimming over.  
  
"Fine," Harry murmured, surprised at Draco's concern. "Let's get lily pads."  
  
~~  
  
"You never told me what your fear was," Harry murmured. The boys were on the bank, letting their clothes dry. It was warm, beginning of September, and the trees surrounding them were letting in enough moonlight to where both boys could clearly see each other's faces. "I told you mine, but you never told me yours."  
  
"Being a Gryffindor." Draco mock-shuddered.  
  
Harry laughed. "I'm serious! Tell me!"  
  
Rolling over to prop his head up with his elbow, Draco studied Harry. "You remember how you said that a spiderweb was a beautiful and intricate thing?" Harry nodded. "And then you said that a cobweb was a pile of crap in the corner of a windowsill?" Harry nodded again, frowning in confusion.  
  
Draco leaned forward. "I'm scared of being a cobweb," he whispered.  
  
"I'm sorry," Harry whispered, after a pause in which he tried to figure out what to say.  
  
"For what?"  
  
"This," he murmured, and closed the gap between them, planting a soft kiss on Draco's surprised lips.  
  
"And I promise not to let you become a cobweb."  
  
~~Fin~~ 


End file.
